Update--Composite TKD Picture

I emailed KickPics last night and had three email responses this morning. Katie had two photo shoots. The first did not have any shots that I liked. The photographer did a second shoot. I picked photos 3, 6 and 7 from the photo shoot. KickPics used 3 from the first shoot,  and 6 and 7 from the second shoot. I erred in not stating which photo shoot and they erred in randomly picking between two photo shoots. (Don't fret, we have a happy ending.) KickPics immediately recognized the error and offered to reprint the composite with the correct pose and mail them to me. Great customer service! Which brings me to a sad thought on the current state of customer service. When I have to contact a company regarding an error that they made, I EXPECT to be in for a long battle with the company. It is a shocker when they pony up and make it right immediately.

Round and Round and Round I Go

Typical 1/2 hour of my day.

1.   Sit down at desk to call doctor. Phone says line #2 is not plugged in. Realize that when testing phone lines on the back of the house did not plug back in #2.
2.   Leave office to go outside.
3.   Stop by child's bedroom door because dog who is in bedroom yelps. Question 5-year old, who is also in bedroom, why dog yelped as if in pain. Five-year old admits to pulling dog's tail.
3.   March tail-puller to "The Corner" in master bedroom.
4.   Go through sewing box while child is doing time. See material that I intended to use for baby clothes. . . baby clothes for Katie. . .the 5-year old. Mentally run through list of friends who have female babies for whom I can make the clothes.
5.   Timer goes off after 12 minutes. Accompany child to bedroom and instruct child to straighten room.
6.   Head to dining room. See item that belongs in master closet on dining room chair.
7.   Return item to closet.
8.   Head back to dining room. See child's breakfast plate still on dining room table.
9.   Retrieve child from bedroom and have her clean up plate.
10. Leg starts getting numb again. Must call doctor.
11. Head to office.
12. Sit down at desk to call doctor. Phone says line #2 is not plugged in.
13. Deja vu!
14. Shake head and wonder how I ever accomplish anything.

The Red Ninja

About a month and a half ago Team Chip TKD had professional photographers come in to take pics of the students. We opted to have Katie's done and today I was able to pick them up. We bought the CD with all of the shots taken and a printed composite photo. Here is the composite.

(Forgive the quality of the pic. I scanned it.)

I like the concept of the composite photo; however, I do not like the image in the upper left corner. I am quite sure that I picked a different picture. I had to write down the numbers of the pictures that I wanted for the composite and I must have messed up on the numbers or the photographers erred with numbering. The picture below is the one that I thought I picked.

The little ninja can kick higher than her head! It is astonishing how much progress she has made over these last two years.

Father's Day Post

We celebrated Father's Day the Saturday before the official day. It was Kate's idea since Rick is usually pretty busy on Sunday's trying to get stuff done before he flies out at 5 pm. It worked out rather well and we had a relaxing day.

The gifts that Kate got Rick for Father's Day were a one cup coffeemaker for the lake house and an iPod Nano. Rick is so very tired of flying, but his music on the Nano alleviates some of the boredom and irritation from being cramped up in a RJ for hours.

Katie wanted to make a sign for her father, so we got poster board and adhesive foamies from Hobby Lobby. Below is the result.

"Happy Father's Day........................................................Dad."

Katie didn't think it was right to have just floating heads of our family, so she drew our caricatures some bodies.

Another Father's Day surprise that we did was place an ad in the local paper with a picture of Rick and Katie and wishing him a happy Father's Day. Rick was really touched.

For dinner I made some real comfort food, which Rick appreciated after the hotel and fast food that he eats all week long. Rick had a good Father's Day, as did Kate and I.

Developments

I measured Kate for height today and she is 3'11" which is 47"; almost 4'; just a 1' 4" shorter than me! I was curious what the average height is for a 5--6 year old child. Turns out the average height is 40"-41" and Kate is actually at the average height for a 9 year old! I tried a few height predictor calculators that I found online. Depending on the calculator, she is predicted to be anywhere from 5' 7" to 6' 1". In other developments, Kate asked me if she could vacuum her bedroom which I was happy to oblige. She enjoyed it, so I suggested that she do the hallway too. After the hallway I suggested the living room furniture. If I keep on suggesting, she will have the whole place vacuumed by 4 pm. Now that is my type of development!

Spoiled

My high school reunion is June 30, but I will not be going. . . again. I have never attended a high school reunion because I have always had something big going on and this time it is no different. The TCR (Texas Cowboy Reunion) Rodeo starts July 4th and we will have a ringside box again, so my travel dates are pretty limited. If I drove it would take me three days each way, which means I would spend more time on the road than at my folks. I would prefer to fly, but flight availability is horrid and pricey. Another "big thing" is that my dear husband bought me a new vehicle, a Hummer H2 Silver Ice Edition! Rick bought the vehicle in Chicago and will be driving it home June 30. I am so EXCITED! But I am also sad that I must bid adieu to my SRT8. I love my SRT8, but I really need a SUV and Rick got an amazing deal on the Hummer. So if you are looking to purchase an amazing, powerful, classy car, email me. Back to the Hummer. The Silver Ice Edition is a luxury edition of the standard H2 with all the bells and whistles and I read that only 750 were made. Here is a picture of my exact Hummer. And yes, I am spoiled. What's it to ya?! (Thank you Rick!)

More Baby Steps

We have had some progress with Hobo. Katie has been able to pet Hobo on a somewhat regular basis, but he still shies away from adults. Last night I did an experiment to test a theory. I sat down in the grass, he would try to approach me. When I stood up, he left the front yard. He doesn't like people lording over him and that explains why Katie has been able to pet him. More baby steps, but he is getting there.

Two Wheels and a New Belt

This weekend Rick took the training wheels off of Katie's bike. She pedaled up to the gate and back, but Rick had to keep his hand on her shoulders so she won't keel over. She has not ridden her bike since, but she is waiting for Rick to come home. Apparently she doesn't trust me to keep her upright.

Off we go!

Katie received her High Blue Belt at the Belt Ceremony on Monday. She is back to making progress in tae kwon do. During the school year getting Katie to go to tae kwon do was a bear. She usually didn't want to go basically because she was exhausted from the seven hour school days. Now that it is summer vacation, she is roaring to go to class and during class she is enthusiastic and strong. I hope it lasts once school begins.

Removing her Blue Belt before she received her High-Blue Belt.

Other than the above two Katie items, there are quite a few other exciting things going on which I will save for another post. So I'll leave you in suspense with that cliff hanger like they did when J.R. was shot on Dallas.

Better Than I Thought

Today was the last day of basketball camp. I wanted to get some pictures of Katie playing, so I left the house a 1/2 hour early. I am glad I did because certificates were awarded for participation in the camp, as well as for first, second and third place in three categories. I am very proud to announce that Katie got 2nd place in Jump Shots and 2nd place in Lay-Ups for her age group. Rankings were determined by the number of baskets that the player made during the week in the noted category. I guess she is better than I thought. Because of the awards ceremony I did not get any action shots of Katie, but I did get a few non-action shots.

This is the only shot that I got. Shortly after I took this, the coach called the players to center court for the awards ceremony.

Katie showing me her participation certificate.

Her certificates.

The Board Breaker, The Star and Super Girl

This past Saturday Katie tested for her high-blue belt in tae kwon do. She did pretty good especially when it came to breaking the board with an axe kick. They have the kids practice on a kicking bag first and once the kids are spot on and hyped up, the kid is instructed to move to the person holding the board. Katie made such a fast transition from the bag to the board that instructor holding the board barely had time to get it in position. You can kind of see it in this video.

This week Katie is attending basketball camp at Anson Middle School. She has never touched a basketball before and it showed on her first day. Monday, I watched the last few minutes of the session and all I could think was "she ain't like Mike." When I asked her if she had fun, she didn't seem that enthusiastic. Turns out that she was dead tired from running around for three hours. Anyhoodle, after camp we journeyed to Wal-Mart to purchase a basketball and after dinner we practiced outside on the missile silo. We were practicing on the sidewalk by the house, but Katie said she needed more room and said, "Let's go to the missile silo." (I don't know why hearing her say "missile silo" or "missile base" cracks me up. I guess because she is the only 5-year old that can say that.) While playing on top of the silo, I realized that she is actually a lot better than I previously viewed. 

Anyone who knows Katie knows that she adores being the center of attention, which explains why she wants to dance on stage in front of a full audience all by herself. One of her often spoken phrases is "Watch me." A few days ago I walked into the living room and found this.

Since Rick and I were busy, Katie created for herself an adoring audience that got to watch her dance and sing. Her song of choice was Total Eclipse of the Heart which is her current favorite.

The next two pictures show Katie's purchase from Wal-Mart. Katie received some money from my parents and sister for "graduating" from kindergarten. (Thanks Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Maryel!) One item she choose was a cap and mask set. Here she is modeling her Super Girl outfit which she has actually worn out in public. I got to tell you that the sight of her running through the house with the cape flowing behind her makes me laugh.

Last item of interest is from the same shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Katie wanted to get two items with her graduation money. The first item she picked out was the cape and mask set and the second was a little Barbie mermaid doll. When we passed the book aisle, Katie found a book that she wanted. She only had money for two of the items so I told her that she had to make a choice. She thought long and hard then finally said, "Reading is more important than playing with toys." and put the mermaid back. That made me happy. Ciao.

Oh, where o' where has my head gone?

We've been keeping ourselves occupied over here at Corinth West, so there is a lot to blog about. However, I will try to break it all into smaller posts.

Last Friday evening I was watering my flowers, which are still surviving despite the grasshoppers' mission to seek and destroy. Right off of the south patio, I have a planter of petunias hanging on a shepherd's hook. I took one step off of the patio with my right foot. I then began to take the step down with my left foot and I just so happened to look down. There was a rattlesnake and I was about to straddle it. Now the rest happened quickly. The snake rattled about a split second after I looked down. I jumped backward, I think, and recall my ankle hurting. Cody was outside and about 10' behind me. I yelled for Cody to come, got him into the house and grabbed my gun. This all went so quickly and I think I was back at the end of the patio and aiming the gun about a minute after I first spied the rattler. I shot and separated his head from the rest of his body. Not content with with one snake now in two and because both parts were still moving and because I was scared and mad, I shot the head again. Take that sucker!

A couple of interesting facts. (1.) The rattlesnake had 13 buttons, so he had been around for a while. (2.) Katie and Rick were in the house and neither heard the two shots despite me firing the .410 about 15' from the house.

So there you have it, the closest I have ever come to being bit by a rattlesnake and below you have the post-mortem pictures.

 Lose something there, buddy?

The diamond pattern is very distinctive; however, the white and black rings on the tail are usually what make me say, "Shit, it's a rattler."